Tower Group’s Canopius transaction signals inversion

US property and casualty insurer, Tower Group has moved to acquire Canopius Bermuda Limited in a move that signals a likely inversion for the US firm. For Canopius the move streamlines its reinsurance operations following its acquisition of Omega.

Speaking with Susan Patschak, CEO of Canopius Bermuda on Wednesday, she said that Tower Group - which is a 10 percent shareholder in the Canopius Group - had indicated that it wanted to buy part of the company’s Bermuda reinsurance operations.

Canopius has been overseeing Bermuda reinsurance operations across three platforms – the recently acquired Omega, and its existing Canopius Bermuda Limited and Canopius Underwriting Bermuda Limited platforms – with the intention being that Tower Group will take on Canopius Bermuda Limited in order to execute a planned inversion.

Patschak said the move would bring about no change in strategy for Canopius in Bermuda. “Once that company is sold, it will be business as usual for us.” She added that the sale will not “affect anybody in Bermuda from the original Canopius”.

Addressing Canopius’s decision to sell one of its own platforms, rather than the newly acquired Omega, Patschak said an intimate knowledge of the business had driven the decision.

If the acquisition does herald an inversion by Tower Group, it would appear to be further evidence of Bermuda’s ongoing appeal as the leading centre for global reinsurance underwriting.